Page 305 - Shaping smarter and more sustainable cities - Striving for sustainable development goals

The deployment of smart meters within an urban infrastructure enables remote accessibility of
consumption data which improves meter reading and billing, detection of leaks, illegal connections
and tamper alerts, as well as enhances the determination of peak demand. Customer and provider
relationships are improved through increased communication and consumers are also equipped to
options to change payment methods (e.g., Prepaid or Post‐paid).

Moreover smart metering allows the water utilities to provide clear, water consumption
information which can help customers to track and control their water usage and thereby see
immediate savings on their bills thereby enabling better distribution network and consumption
planning due to the real‐time monitoring capabilities.

Figure 53 – Smart meter technologies
Source: http://www.allianceforwaterefficiency.org/smart‐meter‐introduction.aspx
GIS integration can improve data management especially of large volume projects. GIS provides high
quality result display especially in hydraulic simulation modelling and provides additional analysis
useful for decision support. GIS allows visualization and analysis of data about water
resources/issues and human activity by linking geographic information with descriptive information.
This is highly valuable to the urban water management in assessing water quality and day to day
operations on a local and regional scale. However, its benefits are not limited to that as urban issues
such flooding can also be mitigated by the use of GIS by providing information on critical areas which
are at a risk of flooding. This is necessary in developing hazard maps as well as development of
emergency response planning. GIS utilization offers more robust analysis, increased efficiency and
reduced costs.
By integrating information from resource satellites, GIS can cover large river basins which some
cities occupy. Combined with local rainfall patterns, meteorological and hydrological data, as well
as drainage systems, GIS improve urban storm water management by strengthening drainage
management and enhance rainwater reuse. This helps to reduce the prevalence of urban flooding
which is increasing in cities since the development of infrastructure in cities has created large
expanses of impermeable earth.

ITU‐T's Technical Reports and Specifications 295